Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel is one man’s story of surviving the holocaust and his struggle with maintaining relationships with his family and other Jews as they are dehumanized by their captivity and conditions. Through the characterization in the book as well as through the recounting of his journey, itself, Wiesel tells the story of how humankind can dehumanize others and cause the captives to also begin to dehumanize one another.
Elie Weisel had three siblings, an unsentimental father, and mother who owned and helped run their family store. As a child, he was very determined, curious and eager to learn more about his religious studies. He later grew up to be a professor and a successful writer who won many awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize.
Moishe the Beadle was a shy boy from Wiesel’s childhood town, Sighet, Transylvania. He was very poor, made sure to stay out of everyone’s way, and “was as awkward as a clown” (Wiesel 3). Moishe became Elie’s master of Kabbalah. He taught him that, “Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks him…” (Wiesel 5) Moishe eventually left Sighet because all the foreign Jews were being forced out to go work as laborers in Galicia.

Once the train containing the foreign Jews crossed over into Hungary, Polish territory had been taken over by Gestapo. The people were ordered off the train and their first task was to dig trenches. Little did they know, they were actually digging their own graves’. Infants were being used as targets and soon one by one, each prisoner was forced into the trench to be shot. Moishe was able to escape because he was wounded and left to die. He returned to his home to spread his word and warn everyone that would listen to his story and those whom he knew, but many refused to pay any attention to